In my role as Pitch Manager I had to create elaborate, asset-rich decks that would be used to pitch campaigns to our biggest clients and partners.
Over time I steered our decks away from flashy sizzle reveals that explained our ideas in minute detail, which were the norm. Whilst they’re great as a leave behind, I found that when played in the room to a client or agency the sizzle can be too much, sucking the air out of the verbal pitch and nullifying the reason for us to be there in person in the first place. The “and THAT’S our big idea!” moment should be something spoken - not displayed on a screen - in my opinion.
What I found to be more effective was something we came to call the “bridge” video. Rather than wrapping up our idea in a dense sizzle, we saved the nuts and bolts for verbal explanation (a great opp to address the client with passion) and instead we used video as a resource up front, in the beginning of the presentation. The bridge took the client right up to the doorstep of the pitch, as a primer; placing them in the mindset of the target demographic, highlighting our ability to speak their language and/or tipping our hat to the campaign themes. They’re a “welcome mat” for ideas.
WOTIF
BRIEF: To promote WOTIF to Australian consumers as more than “just a hotel-booking site” and highlight it’s comprehensive international travel services that include flights, packages and tours.
IDEA: We already knew that Australians love to travel overseas (huge duh). Everyone has a list of their “where to next?” countries. So we wanted to excise the typical recommendations and map-plotting typical of the category. Australians don’t need to be told where to go. They already know. And in this age of Insta-worthy destinations, most Australians have an itinerary of sights, dining and experiences they want tick off in their destination city, ready to go. Our idea was a user-gen content campaign called Where To Wotif, soliciting the target demo for their must-do’s in various countries which would then be aggregated on a branded online portal, with both entrants and visitors eligible to win all-expenses-paid travel/holidays with Wotif.
BRIDGE: With this video we wanted to show our ability to strike the right tone for TVC/visuals (beyond just the audio component of the media brief) and whet the client’s appetite for travel and #wanderlust with music and gorgeous cinematography. Talking about our idea in the room was made much easier when the “sell” immediately followed this video. In a room with great AV (large screen with quality speakers turned up to 11) it set the tone for our pitch. The client said it was “electrifying”.
Johnnie Walker
BRIEF: Part of Diageo’s award-winning “KeepWalking” campaign, the brief for media was for us to come up with a unique, content-rich idea that would reconnect Australian men 25-54 with the JW brand.
IDEA: The archetypal father-son relationship is something that almost every man can relate to, from either perspective, and in many cases from both. “Keep Walking” got us thinking about the paternal identity of Australian men. What does it mean to be a good father? A good son? What is it like to transition from one to the other? Our Triple M Network of FM, DAB+ and streaming radio stations reached more men than any other media company in Australia. Playing to our strengths made sense given the brief and the fact that a large swathe of our male audiences were young (25-40) fathers who were just beginning their journeys into fatherhood (likely turning to their “old man” for advice), and older (40-50) fathers of adult men, now at an age whom they could connect with over a whiskey. The Nightcap Series was a collection of original interviews - edited into audio vignettes and online videos - with some of Australia’s most famous fathers (rock stars, politicians and former sporting greats) and their adult sons. Shot in an antique bar (yep, mahogany and leather-bound books) as the men shared a few fingers of whiskey, topics would range from fatherhood, growth, personal legacy and their respective plans for the future. Keep Walking.
BRIDGE: Triple M’s core pillars are rock, sport and comedy. But in recent years the brand has become synonymous with provocative conversations (via it’s stable of talent, often former sporting legends) that don’t shy away from tough issues, especially surrounding masculinity. Nothing lights up the studio hotlines like a real, meaningful conversation. With this in mind, we wanted to show the genuine, sensitive and emotional packaging that would surround ‘The Nightcap Series’ and exemplify the tone of our approach to the content.
Cellarbrations
BRIEF: Liquor retailing in Australia is an extremely competitive business. There’s a lot of players in the market and differentiation is tough when everybody is essentially selling the same products at more or less the same prices. Unprompted recall is a disaster for all but the market leader. Dropping your pants on prices only works for so long and, outside of loss-leading specials, it’s a race to the bottom. Cellarbrations - a boutique challenger to the more established and widespread warehouse chains - briefed us on a new branding campaign that would use all of our marquee assets (radio, tv, online, podcast) to build a strong, unique brand identity that would set them apart from competitors.
IDEA: The most salient thing to come out of our client uncovery was the fact that Cellarbrations only hires seasoned, knowledgeable staff. Beer fans, liquor enthusiasts, wine connoisseurs, people who know what they’re talking about. Unlike the bored teenager behind the til at Generic Liquor Warehouse, at Cellarbrations you’ll only find friendly and informed staff who can recommend products beyond the ones that are on sale. Thus, our positioning was born. Cellarbrations were the “experts” of the industry, and would be established as the authoritative voice of expert advice in a multiplatform campaign across a majority of SCA platforms, encompassing a commercial schedule, integrated promotions, show sponsorships, experiential activations and talent/influencer campaigns.
BRIDGE: Due to the broad scope of the campaign, this bridge video paints an overall picture for the client, a new baseline for the ‘expert’ positioning as a platform for all messaging to jump from.
Batiste
BRIEF: The Batiste pitch was about finding a way in with female consumers, the majority of whom have low awareness of dry shampoo, it’s benefits and ease of use. With the hair and styling category saturated with premium brands that portray themselves in a glossy, high-end light, Batiste wanted to identify with young female consumers as the low-cost, low-maintenance, low-commitment tool for effortlessly great hair. The kind of product that lives in your handbag.
IDEA: When originally briefed in 2016 our infatuation with all things hashtags and filters was on it’s last legs. We were still leaning into the crazy and drinking the social kool-aid. Now, we’re of course seeing the deconstruction of that wave and more emphasis placed on reality vs our online presence, as an extension of our collective digital detox (like the recent - and fantastic - Unhashtag Vienna campaign). Our ‘No Filter Needed’ handle was created as a pushback against the torrent of photoshopped, Kardashian-endorsed, runway-ready brands that Batiste was in competition with. Predominantly influencer-lead across podcast, online and social, ‘No Filter Needed’ solicited engagement from Batiste’s target demo with compelling content, ‘makeup-free’ (styling product-free) hair selfies and UGC hair tutorial videos, all housed on a Batiste-branded hair & beauty hub.
BRIDGE: With a nationwide, female-skewing audience from late teens to mid 30’s, SCA’s ‘HIT’ Network of radio, web, social and podcast platforms was the perfect media mix to bring No Filter Needed to life. We knew Batiste’s target really well, and wanted to show the client that we knew who they were (they’re not “that” girl) and how to speak their language.
Coca-Cola
BRIEF: Each year over summer, Coca-Cola Amatil makes a massive play for the youth market. It’s when all their golden-hour, sun-dappled, playfully adventurous creative emerges from hibernation and dances loudly and proudly across all mediums. You can’t escape it. In 2016 Coca-Cola invited us to pitch on media for their $3m 2016/2017 summer campaign. Whilst extensive and myriad, the objectives came down to one thing; help them sell more coke to young people.
IDEA: We come back to them with 3 different ideas, which you can see in the bridge videos below. The first rule of Coca-Cola is that you never talk about Coca-Cola - the product - itself. Our campaigns were created to leverage everything else that surrounds the consumption of the product; social status, signaling, communication, connection and identity.
Million Dollar Deeds was a Coca-Cola fronted movement that tapped into the increasingly prevalent trend of ‘consumption with a cause’. Young consumers demand more from brands than ever before; transparency, an always-on dialogue, and outreach on a local and global scale (especially true for larger corporations such as Coca-Cola). In step with this, we know that younger people are more likely to spend money, time and energy on experiences as opposed to material pursuits. With Million Dollar Deeds we would (1) give consumers the chance to turn their purchase of any Coca-Cola product into a donation and dollar-match their fundraising throughout summer and (2) via proof-of-purchase/consumer promotions would give them the opportunity to win cause-related summer holidays, like a mini gap-year, that would see them adventure to far flung destinations to explore and make positive contributions to foreign clutters (e.g. Habitat 4 Humanity).
Message on a Bottle was an evolution of Coca-Cola Amatil’s celebrated ‘share a coke’ campaign; a label-activated voicemail messenger that would unlock a direct line of communication with other consumers of Coca-Cola, both friends and strangers. It was Chat Roulette on a bottle, minus the nudity. This idea appealed to the target’s desire for spontaneity and fun, whilst reinforcing the message of connection already established by ‘share a coke’.
Your Song was our way of tying us, the brand, the consumer and their passion for music together in an exciting way. Southern Cross Austereo is Australia’s largest broadcast media company and one of the country’s largest entertainment publishers - we would be remiss not to use our audio assets in appealing to younger consumer’s strongest passion point; music. With Your Song we would give the target demo a unique, money-can’t-buy opportunity to collaborate with a legitimate recording artist (Troye Sivan, who was still a baby at the time). A dozen young writers, performers, musicians and audio producers would come together - via national consumer promotion - to be mentored by the artist and create an original song that would debut on our HIT Network and receive radio airplay across the country, with proceeds going to charity.